Tis the season

The lights are out in a full blaze of glory. Tiny specs of illumination outline rooftops, garages, windows and doors. Strings of multicolored mini torches wind around trees, bushes, and even the front bumpers of trucks. We have capitalist and inventor Thomas Edison to thank for giving us the first “lights on a string” in 1890. Decorating has come a long way since the traditional candle in the window welcoming travelers into a ‘Christian’ home. But, what is the allure of that glowing light irradiating a darkened room? Why are we so drawn to gaze upon light piercing the darkness like a moth drawn to the flame? The answer may find it’s origin in our inner man. We know very well our lustful, sinful desires, our secrets and how we struggle with the temptation to “live according to the pattern of the world”. We know very well that spiritual darkness is equated with sin and the activity of the adversary. Colossians 1:13 says “For He delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the Kingdom of His beloved Son...”. 1John1:5 says, “...God is LIGHT, in Him there is no darkness at all.” We have been given a choice to either walk in darkness (a.k.a.- lies, greed, disobedience, rejection of Jesus as Lord) or to “walk in the light as He Himself is in the light.” When we choose to live with Jesus as our very life, in the glory of His magnificent light, we have fellowship with Him! We have fellowship with His apostles and we have fellowship with His church, and “His blood cleanses us from all sin.” Jesus is the “light of the world”. It is only through His gift accomplished on the cross that man has been given the opportunity to dwell with Him in perfect light. Which leads us to a possible Biblical reason for stringing up thousands of these micro luminaries. Paul taught in Philippians 2:14 that the saints must “prove (yourselves) to be blameless and innocent children of God, above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, (a.k.a. darkness) among whom you appear as lights in the world.”
Let your light shine as a candle in the darkness, a city on a hill, “before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” Clearly, we have been entrusted as His children, to light up this black world in which we live by “holding fast the word of life”. Therefore, do not be afraid of the dark. Light always conquers.